To Do and Die
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: In the criminal world, too often guilty people walk and innocent people die, a fact Crockett's had to often face in his line of work, and the process never seems to change, and it never gets easier to deal with. What *does* it take for something to change? Chapter 4 is up.
1. Chapter 1

To Do and Die

Sonny stretched his arms over his head as he yawned and leaned back, and then lightly groaned when he felt something pop in his back and heard the accompanying crick. From the other side of the small dark room where they were staked out, he heard his partner laughing and snippily replied, "Shut up, Ricardo."

"Face it, Crockett," Ricardo said, "You're not as young as you used to be."

"Who is?" Sonny responded, "It's been over an hour, these knuckleheads better not be giving us the runaround."

"What's the hurry, Crockett, you got a date with Elvis?" Ricardo said with a laugh.

"Very funny, Tubbs," Sonny dryly replied. After a moment's silence between them, he added, "Have you noticed what a thankless job it is we have? Think about it, how many of the dealers do we go after that end up walking, in spite of everything, all the evidence, all the confessions, all the bodies? And what about all the witnesses we promise protection to and they wind up getting killed?"

"Ours is not the reason why, Sonny," his partner told him, "There's always the option to transfer out."

"I don't _want_ to transfer," Sonny said, "I want some of these scumbags we go after to actually go to prison, and for our witnesses to stay alive."

"That would be nice," Tubbs slowly nodded his head in agreement.

Sonny was sweating bullets, and the immense night heat was doing nothing for his disposition, neither was this case they'd been working on; 2 months undercover trying to get in with and bust up these two clowns who as far as he could already tell, had the blood of at least 500 people from coast to coast on their hands, from tainted drugs. 2 months of going through one obstacle, and another, and going from one thug, to another goon, to another wise guy, to set up this meeting tonight with the two big shots. The more he thought about it, the more Sonny concluded the whole matter could be resolved by taking them back to his place and letting Elvis eat both of them.

Static crackled through on Crockett's walkie-talkie, followed by Switek's voice, "Get ready, Sonny, they're coming in."

"About damn time," Sonny said as he got up, "Let's go."

"Right," Tubbs got up and put on a pair of dark shades despite it being the middle of the night, and the two headed outside just in time to see a pair of car headlights coming their way.

Up pulled a fancy corvette and out of it stepped two guys in their 20s who were dressed in expensive suits and looked like they belonged to the Mafia or something. The four men met halfway between the car and the house. Sonny looked at the two men and addressed them accordingly, "Sanchez, Felton?"

The men didn't make any indication to confirm his guesses. "And you're Burnett?"

"That's right, and, I'd like you to meet my associate," Sonny put his hands on Tubbs' shoulders, "Ricardo Cooper, fresh in from Colombia."

"Originally from Jamaica, man," Tubbs said in a thick accent.

"You're the supplier?" Sanchez asked.

"'Ey man, I'm the best," Tubbs said, "You wan' it, I got it. You don' see it, I get it."

"I told them that when we arranged this meeting, but they insist on seeing it for themselves," Sonny said, "Go ahead, Rico, show them what you brought."

Tubbs held out a black briefcase and let Felton take it. They opened it up and found dozens of dime bags full of heroin.

"90% pure, man," he said, "Best you'll find, and all at a reasonable price."

Sanchez slit one bag open and sampled it for himself and seemed satisfied with the product. "70 kilos, can you deliver that?"

A small glare hit one of the lenses on Ricardo's shades, he didn't let on but as he answered, he looked past the men, to the way they'd come, and saw somebody heading their way. Sonny didn't see the person, but he saw the blue lights just becoming visible, and he didn't have time to wonder how or why the uniformed stooges were coming out here, he just knew they had to hurry to make this bust before the department clowns ruined everything, _again_.

Ricardo told them that he had fulfilled his end of the bargain and proven trustworthy, now he wanted his payment for this shipment so he could trust them for business as well. As soon as the money was in his hand, he said to them, "There's just one more thing, gentlemen." He peeled off his shades and said in his normal voice as he took out his badge, "You're under arrest."

The words hadn't let his mouth a second too soon because that was just when the sirens had been hit and the two men whipped around and saw the squad car heading their way. They pulled out their guns and opened fire as they attempted to get away. Tubbs shot Sanchez and he went down, but Felton had hotfooted it out of there with Sonny on his tail. Felton ran for a short time before he suddenly hit something and fell down, and it took Sonny a minute to realize he had collided with another person. As he came upon the man he realized in the getaway, he'd run into a teenaged girl and knocked her down, and himself in the process.

Sonny lowered his gun as he took in the sight before him; the girl hadn't taken kindly to being charged into and she had Felton by the back of his shirt and by his hair and was screaming at him, "Citizen's arrest! You go to jail for that pal, that's called assault!"

"Alright, Felton," Sonny said as he raised his gun again, "Get up and put your hands where I can see them."

The man grunted, but did as he was told, he slowly got up and put his hands up over his head.

"Thank you, miss," Sonny said to the girl, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I think so," she replied.

Though it was dark, Sonny was able to get a good look at her and saw that in the scuffle she'd split her lip and it was bleeding, and she looked, he thought, to be about 14 years old. He could guess what she was doing out this late at night but he didn't want to. She had short sandy blonde hair that either had natural 'oomph' to it or it was sticking out from the scuffle. She was dressed in blue jeans and a blue scrub shirt like doctors at the hospital wore. Sonny handcuffed Felton first so he couldn't get away easily, then he grabbed the girl's hand and helped pull her up, all the while Felton was alternating between muttering and screaming threats at both Sonny and the girl.

"Eh, shut up," Sonny said as he less than subtly forced Felton to the ground, face first.

"Hey Crockett," Ricardo caught up with him, "You get him?"

"Yeah well…actually she did," Sonny pointed to the girl, then asked her, "What's your name?"

"Robin Barnett, you're a cop?" she asked.

"We're Miami Vice," Crockett answered, "And you just helped us catch a very lucky break."

Tubbs escorted Felton back to where all the action was and Sonny had the girl come with him to answer a few questions before he let her be on her way.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"17, why?" she asked smugly, "You want a date?"

"What were you doing out here?" he wanted to know.

She shrugged and said, "My ride ditched me and I was walking back to town to go home, there's a shortcut through here."

"Where do you live?" he asked.

"Over on 34th Street," she answered.

Sonny did the mental math on the distance and concluded, "You're a long way from home."

"I know," she nodded.

"Sonny!" Tubbs came over to him and said, "Castillo wants to see us back at the station and he says bring our guest with you."

Sonny looked at Robin and said, "Well I know this is kind of coerced but…looks like you'll be getting a lift by the police department tonight."

She just smiled and said, "That'll be fine."


	2. Chapter 2

"Exactly _why_ is it every time we get a big bust going down, the uniform dopes feel a need to come charging in and ruin everything?" Sonny asked Castillo later in the night. During the initial bust there had been a bit of confusion and the two vice cops found themselves getting handcuffed and hauled over to the backseat of a squad car before they were able to get the point across that they were cops too, and even then it took some convincing before the goons in blue stopped hassling them.

"They've got a job to do too, Crockett, the idea of being undercover in vice is that they don't _know_ you're undercover."

"A million other drug deals take place all the time and they don't come storming in to break it up, that's _why_ we have a vice squad," Sonny replied.

"Take it up with the guys in congress," Castillo told him in his usual no-nonsense tone.

"No way," Sonny said, "Those guys don't even get my votes, it's bad enough they get my taxes."

"Where's the girl you brought in?" Castillo asked.

Sonny looked at the lieutenant and did a double take, "I thought you talked to her already."

"No, I haven't seen her since you guys came back in," Castillo said to him.

Sonny looked one way and the other, then back to the lieutenant and told him, "Well hey she didn't just walk out of here."

"For your sake I should hope not, Crockett," Castillo said, "You lose a witness, we all look bad."

Crockett went over to the door and hollered out, "Hey Tubbs!"

"What?" Rico asked as he entered the room carrying a bunch of paperwork under one arm, and one pen in his mouth. Getting a head start on the very dreaded but even more so necessary red tape that followed and put a major damper on any success in police work.

"Did you see that girl we brought in with us?" Crockett asked.

Tubbs spat out his pen and answered, "Nope, I haven't seen her for half an hour. Why?"

"When you _did_ see her, where was she?" Castillo asked.

Rico pointed towards the hall and said, "Last I saw…she was talking to Zito and Switek, something wrong?"

Sonny had just opened his mouth to explain when the three men heard voices traveling down the hallway. They turned the corner and saw Zito and Switek, and Gina and Trudy, _and_ Robin Barnett, and Switek seemed to be either in the middle of telling a joke, or some on-the-job anecdote.

"So they take the guy into the ER, and they can't figure out where he's been shot," Stan was saying, "All of a sudden his nose starts bleeding, so a cop who's in the room hands him a towel, he blows his nose and pfft!" he gestured with his hand, "Out comes the bullet. Apparently when they shot this guy in the head, the bullet got lodged into his sinus cavity, can you beat that?"

"That's gross, Switek," Trudy rolled her eyes.

"We should all be so lucky," Zito added.

"Did that _really_ happen?" Robin asked.

Switek held up his right hand and looked to the ceiling as he said, "I swear on my Aunt Regina's grave."

Zito poked Switek in the shoulder and told him, "You don't _have_ an Aunt Regina, Stan."

Switek just ignored him.

"What's going on?" Castillo asked, quickly gaining everybody's attention.

There was an awkward silence for a couple seconds before Zito held up his cup of coffee and started to say, "We just went…"

"And you?" Castillo turned towards Gina and Trudy.

"We were with them," Gina said.

"And I don't drink coffee," Robin held up a coke can, "But I went with them anyway because I got tired of sitting around here waiting to speak to somebody."

Castillo went over to her and told her, "I'm Lieutenant Martin Castillo, I'd like to speak with you about what happened tonight."

"Oh, you one of those uh, departmental headshrinkers I've heard about?" Robin asked, "Gonna ask me what I'm thinking and stuff like that?"

"Not exactly," Castillo looked mildly annoyed by her question, "I'd like you to come with me to my office."

"Alright," Robin complied, and added, "But you better leave the door open."

"Everybody get back to work," Castillo called over his shoulder.

"Well the fun part of it's over," Sonny said to his fellow detectives, "Now I think I'd rather just fall on a rusted spike and succumb to tetanus."

"Don't you say the same thing when you get a flu shot?" Rico asked cynically.

* * *

Sonny yawned and craned his neck from side to side to pop it. It was going on 2 o' clock in the morning, Felton and Sanchez had been locked up and processed hours ago, it was just the paperwork that had been left to take care of, in triplicate, and he was finally finished.

"I've had it, Rico," he said as he dropped his files on Castillo's desk and stepped out of the Lieutenant's office, "I'm going home and I may just apply for early retirement after tonight."

Tubbs laughed where he sat at his desk still working, and told him, "You'll be back bright and early tomorrow."

"Maybe," Sonny rubbed his eyes and grabbed his jacket on the way out, "Buenas noches, muchacho."

"Uh huh," Tubbs replied as he hovered over the papers he still had to fill in.

Sonny was halfway to the door when through the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a powder blue shirt. He stopped in mid-step and looked back and saw Robin Barnett in an unoccupied holding room seated at a table with her head down as if she was somewhere between falling asleep and dreading somebody's arrival.

"Hey," he said as he knocked on the wall to get her attention.

Robin shot up in her chair and yanked her head around to see him and said tiredly, "Hey, Crockett."

"What're you still doing here?" he asked, "Didn't Castillo say you could go?"

"Hmmm," her eyes closed and her head drooped, then she opened them again and said, "I guess he did, I don't remember…what time is it?"

"Almost two," he answered, "I hope for your sake you called your parents and told them you'd be late."

Robin shook her head, "My parents are out of town for the week, visiting my grandma up in Tallahassee, they don't have any idea I'm even here."

"And they didn't take you with them?" Sonny asked.

"If you knew my grandmother you'd know why," she answered as she rolled her eyes at the mention of the woman, "That old bat detests me. That lieutenant of yours made it perfectly clear I'm not supposed to talk about what happened tonight with anybody, which suits me just fine anyway, I hate talking to people as it is. Nobody likes _me_ either."

Sonny considered what the girl's options were for the night given the time and her lack of means of getting home anytime soon, and he said to her, "My car's outside, want a lift?"

Robin nodded tiredly as she got up from the table, "That'd be great, save my feet the trouble."

* * *

"Hey listen," he said to her on their way out of the building, "I want to thank you for your help tonight."

"I didn't do anything," Robin shook her head groggily as she followed behind him.

"Yeah, you did, it may not have been planned but you helped us catch one of the biggest dealers this side of the Atlantic."

"Really?" Robin asked as they stopped at his Ferrari, "And here I thought he was just some cheap hood. Apparently one of the things money still _can't_ fix is attitude." She looked at the white car and asked Sonny, "This your car?"

"Yup," he answered.

"What is it?" she asked.

Crockett turned his head towards her disbelievingly and answered, "It's a Ferrari."

She looked at him and asked, "How do you afford that on a cop's salary?"

"Never mind, just get in," he told her.

"You want my address?" Robin asked as Sonny got in, started the car up and drove off.

"That won't be necessary," he answered as he kept his eyes on the brightly lit neon scenery up ahead in the night, "See there's been a slight change in plans."

"Oh?" Robin looked at him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Yeah," Sonny answered, "You can call it what you want, but I don't like the idea of sending a teenager back to an empty house in the middle of the night, I know what kind of lowlifes roam the streets around this time of the night, trust me, it ain't pretty."

"So what would you suggest?" Robin asked as she put her feet up on the dashboard.

"Take your feet off of there," he told her, and added, "Well as it turns out, I know a place you can stay at tonight, and then tomorrow you can go back home when you can see the creeps coming."

He noticed that his passenger was only half listening and already more than halfway asleep. The rest of the drive was passed in silence, it was only when he stopped the car that he said anything and got her up.

Robin rubbed her eyes and saw they were at the marina and saw the sailboat dead ahead and asked, "What's this?"

"This is my place," Crockett told her as they got out of the car, "I know it's not exactly ethical, but what my boss don't know won't hurt him, or _me_ for that matter."

Robin looked at the boat and commented as she reached for the door, "I've had worse offers."

"There's just one thing before we head in," Sonny told her as they headed to the dock, "I've got a pet."

"What, a killer attack Doberman?" Robin asked.

"Not quite," he replied, "Come on, I'll show him to you."

They got up on the deck of the boat and Sonny called down to the kitchen, "Hey Elvis! Come on up here!"

Robin saw the snarling alligator coming up the stairs and she jumped back, "Look out! It ate your dog!"

Sonny laughed and said, "No, this is Elvis." He turned his attention to his pet alligator and said, "You've missed your daddy, haven't you, boy?"

Robin watched as he got down and petted the alligator and rough housed with it like it was a dog and she said, "That's your pet?" She snorted and said, "Cops are weird."

"Aw Elvis just likes getting attention," Sonny insisted, "Don't let him bother you, he don't bite."

"Sure, he's a nice gator," Robin humored him, "Just like every dog that's ever bit somebody was a 'good dog' I'm sure."

All the same she followed him down the stairs below deck and got the grand tour of the boat.

"Here's the bed," Sonny said as he wrapped up the tour, "I may not be married anymore but I do remember how to be a good host, you can sleep here, I'll sleep over there on the other side of the boat, and then tomorrow we'll get you back home. Until then, feel free to make yourself at home."

"Uh huh," Robin said skeptically, "And where's Elvis going to sleep?"

"Oh he sleeps over there," Sonny pointed to Elvis's pink blanket, "Don't worry, he's housebroken, and he won't crawl into bed during the night."

"Thank God for small favors," Robin remarked only half sarcastically.

Very suddenly, Crockett's houseguest did a 180 and she stood very straight and suddenly looked very wide awake and all there and she started walking through the rooms, throwing the doors open and asked, "Anybody else here?"

"No," Sonny answered, observing the sudden change in her disposition and not sure what to make of it.

She stopped at a window and got on her toes and looked out into the night, "Can anybody see in here?"

"No."

She turned towards Crockett and asked him point blank, "This place bugged?"

"Of course not!" Crockett replied, seriously starting to wonder what was with this chick.

"Well good," she said, "Maybe then we can cut the crap and talk straight. I'm very interested to know why a vice cop would bring me back to his place, if I'm going to wind up raped, murdered and thrown overboard or fed to that scaly garbage disposal, I'd at least like to know it so I can see it coming."

Unnervingly, Sonny kept an unusual grin on his face during her little rant. His son wasn't old enough for him to know from personal experience, but he was just guessing that this was that typical, one-size-fits-all smart aleck teenage attitude that you just wanted to _smack_ out of them, and he was just as tempted as the next guy. Still, he remained perfectly civil with an unnatural grin on his face and said practically through gritted teeth, "Boy you're a real piece of work, aren't you?"

"I've had practice," Robin told him as she placed one foot on his coffee table.

"Get your foot off of that," he told her.

"You're a parent, aren't you?" Robin asked, "It's apparent," and she laughed at her joke.

"A teenaged girl, whose parents are out of town for the week, going home alone at 3 in the morning to an empty house, to any scum on the street that deal couldn't be any sweeter if you hogtied yourself to save them the trouble," Sonny said to her, "Now maybe you weren't paying attention out there tonight, those two guys we busted are two of the biggest heroin pushers in this country, and the one who used you for a speed bump got a very good look at you. It wouldn't be anything for him to use his one phone call to his mouthpiece and relay a message that his lawyer in turns relays to somebody else who finds out where you live and comes in and kills you."

The girl just cracked, and laughed at him and said smugly, "You read too many comic books."

"I've been on this job too long," he replied, "I know what I'm talking about."

"Uh huh," Robin said disbelievingly as she sat down on his couch, "And so how long were you planning to hold me hostage here?"

"Like I said," Sonny explained, "First thing in the morning we'll go back to your place and make sure nobody's been there, and once I'm satisfied nobody _has_, I'll be very happy to have you out of my hair and never have to put up with you again."

She looked up at him and asked point blank, "If I call the cops because you're holding me against my will, they wouldn't do a damn thing, would they?"

Sonny said nothing, did nothing, for a moment as he took in her question, then he shook his head and answered, "Nope."

Robin slowly nodded and looked around the boat, "First thing in the morning, huh? I guess I can manage that." She stood up and turned, then spun back to look at Crockett and said to him, "You _really_ think those two bozos you busted tonight would try and have me killed?"

"Nothing is impossible in the world of narcotics, believe me," Sonny told her, "Some of these guys we've hauled in would have their own mothers wiped out in the name of a profit, _or_ revenge."

"Revenge for what?"

"He's going to remember you're the reason he was delayed long enough for us to nab him," Sonny explained, "So we're going to give him and any friends he has a chance to find out where you live, find out you're not there and leave a little welcome home present for you, at which point we go in, find it…"

"And what, ride the wild lightning?" Robin asked smartly.

"First thing's first," Crockett said, "First we give them a decent amount of time to put the pieces together. Now neither one of those guys made any phone calls once we brought them in, but that isn't to say that they won't, and if they do, the time between now and the crack of dawn is more than enough to arrange a hit or plant a bomb, on these guys' dimes they pull all stops at warp drive, they can arrange bail, order a hit, get out on bond and hop a jet leaving the country in an hour."

"You of course speak from experience," Robin didn't sound entirely convinced.

"Too much." Too much experience, too many getaways, too many dead bodies, too much blood unanswered for.

Robin folded her arms tight against her chest and remarked, "It sounds to me, Mr. Crockett like you're just going into plain burnout."

Crockett snorted. "There's the understatement of the whole century. There's no end in sight to these scumbags and everything their money can buy them, freedom, immunity, escape...a new life, a double life, a second life."

"So why do you keep doing it?" she asked, "If it's so futile?"

Even he wondered that. The best answer he could come up with was, "Hey, the grease vat's never going to stay clean, but you still have to cook the fries."

* * *

Cops always resented the fact that the public in general did not trust them. All the same, Crockett would not respond well to _any_ teenager who had no qualms about going with a cop back to his place to stay the night. That this girl didn't trust him, oddly enough, gave Sonny a reassuring feeling that she was for the most part all there upstairs. In spite of everything, she still didn't trust him. She hadn't settled down for the night, she sat up on his bed watching, she held out as long as she could but finally around 3 A.M. she finally fell asleep, and she _fell_, and crash landed hard. Once she was out, he sincerely doubted there was _any_ waking her up. And just as well. Now that she was dead to the world, he had to step out, he had some work to do.

Before going up on deck, Crockett found Elvis and crouched down to be closer to eye level with his alligator and quietly said to the reptile, "If anybody comes in here, eat them." He started to get up and then amended his statement and told Elvis, "No wait, _don't_ eat them, because you never do what I tell you to anyway."

He went up on deck, got off the boat, got in his car, and drove around for a few minutes until he came to a quiet part of the city where there were plenty of lights, but not much action, but there _was_ a phone booth. He went in, shut the door, picked up the phone book and flipped to the B section.

Part of the reason he hadn't bothered getting the address out of Robin was because he had a sneaking suspicion that he was being given the runaround by a girl whose family did _not_ live over on 34th Street. It was a very general location given to make for an easy drop off point; he let her out on a certain block outside of a particular house, and as soon as he turned the corner she'd disappear off to somewhere else in the night. And if that _would_ happen and something _else_ would happen and they'd find her body in the morning among the garbage bags at the curb, he didn't need _that_ on his conscience, he didn't need _anymore_ blood on his hands, but he also was not going to be taken for a fool.

Bachand, Baker, Baker, Baker, Baker, Baker, Barleen, aha, Barnett: Barnett, Barnett…well he'd be damned, there _was_ a Barnett listed with a 34th Street address. Okay, so that part of it was true, all the same, he'd go and check it out for himself and see if everything added up to the girl's story. Cops were supposed to have photographic memories and be able to remember every single, solitary detail, and yet they _still_ had to fill their paperwork out in quintuplet. Sonny copied the address down on a corner of the page and ripped the corner off and stuck it in his jacket pocket. He'd go check out the scenery and see just what kind of a place this girl was going to supposedly be walking into tomorrow morning. It would've been easier if he could've confided any of this to somebody, anybody: Tubbs, Gina, Switek, but he knew Castillo would have his badge if a single syllable of this slipped out to anybody, so he'd have to go alone and trust that his less than trusty watch gator managed to keep his boat guest right where she was until he got back.

* * *

Robin Barnett awoke abruptly the next morning to and from a variety of sounds, not so common with living in the suburbs or a cul-de-sac, but rather out on the water. Even that however, was only secondary to the low growling noise she was hearing, and sitting up on the bed and looking around, she realized the noise was emanating from the large pet alligator.

"Crockett!" she called as she jumped up on the bed, "Come and get your damn alligator!" Wait a minute. She reached down as far as her hand could reach and grabbed the digital clock off the stand next to the bed and saw it was already 6 in the morning.

"Hey detective!" she called, "It's about an hour past 'first thing in the morning', what's the holdup?" She waited for an answer but there was none. "Hey, Miami Vice, you out there?"

No response. No response except for the low grumbling noises Elvis was making.

"Shut up!" Robin told him as she dared to step down from the bed, "What'd you do you stupid suitcase, did you eat him?"

Of course no answer from Elvis. So Robin decided she'd have to investigate herself. Slowly, she made her way around the boat and couldn't find any sign of Crockett, and also no sign of a struggle, and no sign that this giant lizard had eaten anybody _lately_. Okay, so the cop wasn't here, then where the hell _was_ he? And what was _she_ going to do?


	4. Chapter 4

Before Crockett had clocked out the night before, he'd mentioned to Tubbs something about coming over early the next morning. Something he wanted to talk to Rico about that he didn't feel too confident about giving voice to within their headquarters, no matter how secure the place was supposed to be. And so here was Tubbs, early in the morning, still not quite awake but driving out to the marina in his car, wondering what could possibly be on Crockett's mind so hard and heavy, when he pulled up and took note of the fact that Crockett's car was nowhere to be seen. He didn't get it.

A bad feeling suddenly hit Tubbs and he decided he'd better check it out. He had his gun ready and cautiously made his way onto the boat, and worked his way down the stairs below deck. As he started down the stairs, he was able to hear somebody talking, but the further down he got, he realized it wasn't Crockett's voice. It sounded younger, more…more feminine, not by much though.

"Sonny?" he quietly called out as he entered the kitchen.

No, not Crockett. It was that kid from last night. Before Tubbs could even think to wonder _what_ in the hell she was doing here, he watched in awe and stupor as she took a sandwich off a tall pile of them on a plate and tossed one to Elvis, who caught it in one snap and all but swallowed it.

"A sandwich for you," she said, "Potato chips for me." She stuck her hand in a crumpled bag and took out a few chips and ate them, before grabbing another sandwich and flinging it to Elvis. "Another sandwich for you," she said, and picked up a pack of Crockett's smokes from off the table, "A cigarette for me." She found a lighter and lit it and inhaled like a pro, and blew out a smoke ring. Then she picked up another sandwich and Frisbee tossed it to Elvis and told him, "Another sandwich for you," she went over to the fridge, opened the small freezer door above and said, "And an ice cream bar for me." She turned back to the alligator and said to him, "I don't know about you, Elvis, but this is the best breakfast I've had in a long time."

Tubbs would've sworn he was dreaming, or on Candid Camera or something. "Excuse me," he spoke up loud enough to get her attention.

She spun around like a flash. "Hey," she said, "You're that other cop from last night."

"You might say that," Rico said as he stepped further into the small room, "And you are?"

"Robin Barnett," she said.

"Oh right," he replied, "And _what_ exactly are you doing _here_?"

She shrugged, "Beats the hell out of me, your friend brought me here last night, and he was gone when I woke up."

For some reason, Tubbs was getting the funny feeling that this was a joke he wasn't in on. "Would you mind running that by me again, a little slower this time?"

Robin huffed in an annoyed manner and said, "Crockett found out my parents were out of town, and he said he was bringing me back here for the night and that he'd take me back home in the morning, but when I woke up he was already gone and he ain't been back since. So I've been getting better acquainted with his pet, now you tell me something, I don't care if we're in Florida or not, who in the _hell_ keeps an _alligator_ for a pet?"

Tubbs couldn't resist a good chuckle, "That's a good question, I'm waiting for the answer myself."

"I mean," she continued, "I know what they say about you should never feed alligators, but he _is_ a pet, isn't he? And that makes it different, so it has to be safe, right?"

"I guess," Tubbs said.

Robin shrugged again and told him, "I don't have any idea what the hell alligators eat, so I've just been giving him some peanut butter sandwiches, he seems to like _those_ alright."

Her comment was so out there and unsuspected, Tubbs found himself doubled over snorting momentarily.

"All I know is Crockett said to make myself at home so that's what I'm doing until he gets back," she told him.

Tubbs straightened up and composed himself and noted, "I hope Crockett gets back soon, otherwise you two are going to eat him out of boat and home in one day at this rate."

Robin was less amused, "It doesn't make any sense, he said he'd take me back first thing in the morning and that was over an hour ago, where would he have gone?"

"Yeah, good question," Tubbs nodded, "He told _me_ to meet him here early before we went to work."

"So now what do we do?" Robin asked him.

Tubbs almost asked her, 'We?', but instead he said to her, "I'm just going to go on a limb and guess Sonny didn't get this overnight okayed with Castillo." Robin shook her head. "Uh huh, that's what I thought."

"He make a habit of doing this?" she asked.

"Go behind Castillo's back on things? In a blue moon," Rico answered.

"I mean," Robin started to say.

Rico raised his hand to summon her attention and told her, "I _know_ what you mean and the answer's no, you're the first person I can recall Crockett bringing back _here_, where he _lives_."

"Nervy move, wasn't it?" Robin asked him.

Rico found himself nodding, "Yeah, _real_ nervy."

Of course, this would all be good and well if Crocket was here and could actually _verify_ that he'd done what this kid said he'd done. But then again, if not, for the life of him, Tubbs couldn't figure out what or why she was here. That, perhaps was what unnerved him the most about all of this.

"Let's see," Robin said, as if reading his thoughts, "I'm a vice cop living out here on the water with that pet walking piece of luggage over there…where the hell would I be at 6:30 in the morning?"

Where indeed? Tubbs looked to the girl curiously and asked her, "Where do you live?"

"I already told that other cop," she said defiantly.

Tubbs had just shifted into full no-nonsense now and told her, "And now you're gonna tell _me_."

"I can do better than that," she replied, "I can show you."

Robin grabbed the plate with the remaining sandwiches and heaved the sandwiches off and sent them flying for Elvis to eat.

"Come on," Robin told Tubbs, "Let's get out of here while he's distracted."

Tubbs chuckled and told the girl, "If he wanted to eat you he'd have done it long before now."

"Yeah, but do _you_ want to be the one to explain to Crockett when we find him that you let his pet take himself for a walk?" Robin asked as they headed for the stairs.

"_We_ are not going to find Crockett," he told her as they surfaced on deck, "I'm dropping you off, and then _I'm_ going to find him."

* * *

Oh…oh, his head, oh, it hurt too much to even groan. Crockett moved his tongue, which felt thick like old shoe leather, around inside of his mouth and felt his cheek was swollen on the inside and felt like it had a long cut down it or something, must've bitten himself when he was asleep. Asleep? Oohhh, he couldn't even think back that far. All he knew was that his head was killing him _now_, and that was about all he knew.

What a night…he was _never_ drinking that much again. A minute passed before a realization came to him. _Wait a minute_. He hadn't _had_ anything to drink last night. Or did he? He didn't remember it. What _was_ last night anyway? And was he sure last night _was_ last night and this wasn't 3 days later? He got his eyes open, and was suddenly sorry he did. Too bright, too bright, his eyeballs were burning from the intense sun overhead. What was going on? What time was it?

Forcing himself over onto his stomach, Crockett opened his eyes again and looked straight down at his wristwatch and saw it was going on 7 in the morning. Damn it, what had happened? He tried to remember. He felt the back of his head and it hurt to touch. Somebody must've worked him over _good_ last night, but he sure couldn't remember any of it now. He hadn't been drunk, he hadn't had anything to drink, this he deduced because his stomach wasn't burning, he couldn't taste anything on the back of his throat, and this did _not_ feel like a typical hangover, this felt more like the hangover of a barroom brawl instead.

Looking down so the sun wasn't blinding him, he was able to see that his hands weren't bloody or cut up, his jacket was only slightly messed up and dirty…damn. A few feet out from him he saw his sunglasses, one black lens shattered and laying in pieces all over the ground.

"$300 pair of sunglasses," he grumbled as he started testing his arms and legs to determine if he could stand up.

Bit by bit Sonny was able to move into a sitting position, and he was able to look around, and while he couldn't off the bat remember _where_ he was, he noticed that his car was still there, about fifty feet away from him, in one piece, and he was still all in one piece, he still had his wallet, he still had his badge on him, so this wasn't a mugging, he wasn't robbed, he wasn't carjacked, what then had happened last night?

"Dammit!" he said to himself as he _did_ suddenly remember he had a houseguest on his boat that was long overdue for a ride home.

He pulled himself together and got to his car, found the keys were still in the damn ignition! This wasn't making any sense, but that would have to wait until he had time to sort it all out.


End file.
